A Successful Start to the Centennial of Journalism at Marquette

This past Friday, the Diederich College of Communication officially began celebrating a century of journalism education at Marquette University. The kickoff consisted of two big events in one day: the student-produced Centennial Seminars program, taped and live steamed in the early afternoon, and the Centennial Kickoff celebration at the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit later that evening.

Centennial Seminars, taped in Studio 7 (Johnston Hall), offered a panel discussion on ethical issues in journalism. Panel guests included some local names (Ron Smith and Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and our very own Dr. Bonnie Brennen) as well as national ones (political strategist Sophia Nelson, John Barron of the Chicago Sun-Times, Chris Bury of ABC News and Adam Yamaguchi from Current TV’s Vanguard). Students, faculty and staff gathered together in the new JH 103 multimedia classroom to watch the discussion unfold via livestream broadcast.

That evening, the Streets of Old Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Public Museum came alive with faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the college, all there to celebrate the past, present and future of our journalism program. Students dressed as old-fashioned ‘newsies’ strolled the cobblestone pavement throughout the evening equipped with iPads, showing student-created projects about various historical aspects of the journalism program at Marquette. Guests took novelty photos against the backdrop of old buildings holding prop newspapers while a barbershop quartet sang in the background. Later in the evening, dean Lori Bergen gave a speech about the centennial milestone, after which Marquette’s own Gold N’ Blues entertained guests with a medley of songs. As a whole, the event was a great way to start off the year-long festivities.